The new Romanian wine revolution

The design studio has been busily immersing itself in the world of Romanian wine, surprisingly something we’ve all enjoyed.

We’ve been working on a new project to create a name, winery identity and label design for a range of artisan wines being launched this summer. This includes two reds, one white and one rosé.

Romania is one of the oldest wine producing countries in Europe and has some fantastic wines, but it’s reputation has suffered in recent years mainly due to the political state of the country over the last century.

However, in recent times smaller artisan wine producers have started to create a new wave of very good wines for the European and American markets.

Dusted were asked to help in the naming of the winery which was a very interesting process involving a lot of research into the culture, folklore, traditions and language of Romania. After collaborating with the winery owner we worked with leading Romanian copywriter Raluca Feher who helped to craft the final name ‘Dagon Clan’ for the range of wines.

The name is derived from the ancient god of land, sea and fertility which fits the area of Urlati where the winery is located. This land was submerged under sea water in prehistoric times and has a soil made up of sandy patches resulting form sea shells in the area adding a distinct character to the wine grown on the land.

Our approach was to design an identity that had a sense of modernity and tradition – we settled on a simple word mark that alludes to the area being underwater but still retains a minimal simplicity. To balance the modern/classic look of the brand mark we decided to push towards a label design that had a more traditional/hand-crafted feel to balance the visual impact of the label. It also represents the artisan style in which the wine is made.

Each wine has a distinct name – Har (meaning grace), Jar (meaning ember), and Clar (meaning clear) – for the red, white and rosé variants. Each bottle carries its own bespoke illustration to represent the gods of land, sea and fertility.

The full range will be out this summer with the Rosé leading the way over the next month. The wines will be available in Romania, the UK and American markets.

We’ve yet to taste them as they are currently being bottled, but can’t wait!